KM Legal, 2 (6), 2008

Mature know-how tool or software fad? Many legal departments and law firms find their way to Allen & Overy (A&O) to ask about our experience of using Web 2.0. Based on our successful experience of using tools such as blogs and wikis over the past few years, I rarely send them away saying ‘don’t do it’. However, at the same time I do try to convey that Web 2.0 is not a panacea: the formula Web 2.0 = KM is no truer than DM = KM or search = KM, or any of the other legal knowledge management (KM) technology propositions of the past. So, it’s great to have this opportunity to put the case ‘for’ Web 2.0, in the knowledge that a contemporary will be able to add some appropriate words of legal caution in response, in a future issue of the magazine.

Knowledge goes west
Based in Bristol, the recently launched Knowledge Network West is an online forum and networking group for knowledge professionals. Helene Russell, it’s founder, speaks to KIM Legal about the origins of the group and its planned development moving forward.

Leading the edge
If law firms are to be effective in building a competitive advantage through knowledge management (KM) they need to invest in both their infrastructure capabilities and the influencing skills of their knowledge leaders and advocates.REGULARS

Thought leader
Is knowledge management dead? That was the question posed in a recorded interview of Larry Prusak and Dave Snowden by Patrick Lambe, which I recently encountered on the ‘Straits Knowledge’ website. Funnily enough, I had already agreed to make that the title of this commentary so, in a modest way, it was gratifying to see that my thinking coincides with that of such eminent gurus.